One of the world’s most popular technology review websites CNET had to clean a Russian hacker out of some of its servers over the weekend. A
CNET isn’t saying much at the minute about the nature of the attack or the data that may or may not have been stolen. “Here's the situation, a few servers were accessed. We identified the issue and resolved it yesterday. We will continue to monitor,” said Jen Boscacci, senior manager of corporate communications at CNET, on Sunday.
The image posted on Twitter would indicate the hacker could access and upload files to the website. It’s pretty difficult to say how they did it, though. One source suggested it was likely a content management system breach - something like a WordPress or Joomla exploit.
Image of CNET hack from Twitter
With hope, no user data such as usernames or passwords were compromised, but CNET wouldn’t provide any more detail than that above.
A look over the aforementioned Twitter account, however, provided some information on the history of the hacker, who is likely Russian looking at the screenshot. They appeared to have been involved in a breach of the BBC last year and have been running a website where members can show off their exploits, w0rm (dot) pw.
Whoever they are, they can now brag about apparent involvement in on two of the biggest media organisations in the world, even if they haven’t managed to access particularly sensitive data.
This story will be updated as soon as more information becomes available.
UPDATE: As security professional Janne Ahlberg just pointed out on Twitter, w0rm has offered a database for CNET.com for one Bitcoin, though he doesn't specify which databases he has accessed.
